HOWTO: Set up VNC server with resumable sessions - KUBUNTU VERSION

I have borrowed a lot of the notes from that author, only changing things to work for Kubuntu users. Most of the credit for the info goes to the author of that post. If you are having problems, I strongly recommend browsing through that thread first.

This guide is intended for Kubuntu users, and details how to enable Xdmcp for your KDE session. It was written using Kubuntu 6.06 (i386) as a reference. In the steps, I use kate as the text editor, but you can use whatever editor you prefer. In reality I use vi, but most people don't know vi commands so I stick with kate in these examples.

Required packages:

To make sure you have the proper software installed, execute the following:

If you're using previous versions of any of these packages, there's no guarantee this will work. (Actually, there's no guarantee this will work anyway, but if you use versions below what I indicated, then you're just making it harder on yourself )

WARNING: Make sure you install vnc4server and NOT vncserver. These packages ARE different, and the latter will NOT work correctly.

Note to AMD64 users: The current version of vnc4server in the repositories has a bug, so you need to download and install the fixed vnc4 packages as shown below:

This is a big file and can be confusing, so make sure you do this exactly as shown. Scroll down and find this line:

Code:

#* #any host can get a login window

Remove the # from the beginning of that line, so it looks like this:

Code:

* #any host can get a login window

Then find this line:

Code:

#* CHOOSER BROADCAST #any indirect host can get a chooser

Remove the # from the beginning of that line, so it looks like this:

Code:

* CHOOSER BROADCAST #any indirect host can get a chooser

Save the file and quit out of KATE.

Now we need to restart the KDM process so it will re-read the configuration file. The easiest way to do this is to just reboot the machine. The quickest is to do the following:

Code:

ps -ef | grep kdm

This will print out a list of processes with the letters 'kdm' in the name. Find the one that looks like the following (Specifically the one that ends in /usr/bin/kdm):

Code:

root 4530 1 0 0:09:20 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/kdm

See the number right after root? 4530 in my example, you will almost certainly have a different number. That's the process ID or PID. Type the following command to restart kdm (Substituting the PID number you have for the 4530 in my example):

I recommend leaving all of that code alone, but you can safely change the 1024x768 to be a bigger or smaller resolution for your Xvnc window, depending on what you want. You can also change the depth, but understand that increasing the depth bits will cause more bandwidth to be used over your network, which could slow down your VNC experience considerably.

Don't worry if you see a message like "Xvnc: no process killed". This just means there was no open, active session of VNC running at the time. This is expected and is normal.

5. TEST

If you followed all of the above steps correctly, you should now be able to test your VNC server. Type the following in a terminal:

Code:

vncviewer localhost:1

You should be prompted for the VNC password, and then see the KDM login screen where you can login and start a new X session. If that works, you can now go ahead and try to connect from remote machine using your favorite VNC client (remember to first close the local vncviewer we started above). Remember to use the VNC server machine's domain name or IP address, followed by :1 (e.g. 192.168.0.100:1). If connecting locally as shown above works, but connecting remotely fails, then this means you have a problem with a firewall which is blocking some ports. See the notes below about how to deal with that.

Note about ports: The VNC server set up as shown uses TCP port 5901. If you are using firewall software (e.g. firestarter) on that machine, you need to allow incoming connections on this port. If you are using a router which assigns your machine a private address (e.g. 192.168.0.100) which is not accessible from the internet, then you need to forward TCP port 5901 from the router to this machine.

Note about security: This setup allows any user to start an X-session remotely by logging in using his regular password (after starting the VNC connection using the VNC password), so if the user disconnects without logging out, any other user which knows the VNC password can connect afterwards and resume the same session that the first user started. So if you do not want to log out before disconnecting, it's advisable to at least lock your VNC X-session screen. Also note that while a remote user is connected thru VNC, no other connection will be accepted. An idle VNC client will be disconnected after one hour, but this can be changed by using the "-IdleTimeout" option in the server_args line in /etc/xinetd.d/Xvnc. For example, you can add "-IdleTimeout 300" to change it to 5 minutes.

Re: HOWTO: Set up VNC server with resumable sessions - KUBUNTU VERSION

Hi paperdiesel

Thanks for the Kubuntu HowTo for vnc4server.

I've been trying to get remote access (over my home LAN) to desktop:0 ( actual desktop) of a remote "headless" PC ie no monitor, mouse or keyboard, but its NVidea TV out is connected to a TV and I can view the "cloned" desktop ( and TV output) on that.

Can successfully remotely access the pc using NX ( better than vnc, Krfb etc in my opinion) but none of those allow access to desktop:0, whereas vnc4 will ( at least according to its website).

Re: HOWTO: Set up VNC server with resumable sessions - KUBUNTU VERSION

Hey Bill,

If you want to use VNC to view display :0, I'd recommend x11vnc. I used it a while back, and if I remember correctly, it acts as a VNC extension to the X server, and loads inside your xorg.conf file and allows you to VNC in to the main display.

I've also heard about people using vnc4server and getting grey screens. But if you're trying to use vnc4server to display :0, that might be why you're getting a grey screen. Try x11vnc and let me know if it works.

Re: HOWTO: Set up VNC server with resumable sessions - KUBUNTU VERSION

Hi paperdiesel

thanks for the reply.

Have tried several "HowTos" for remote connecting to desktop:0, including x11vnc, but your instructions herewith are the only one's that I've found for Kubuntu.

Problem is that many of the Ubuntu "Howtos" give instructions to use various Gnome Menu items that just don't exist with Kubuntu/KDE, and fail to name the actual config files that are altered.

From past experience with vnc, which I haven't used since discovering NX, I have vague recollections that in order to fix the "grey screen" problem, a config file has to be altered to include the starting of the desired window manager, in this case kde.

When I get time I'll dig through my old install notes and try to find the info. Have "googled" to no avail. I think that this "grey screen" problem can occur regardless of whether you are using Krdc, vnc, x11vnc etc.